At the beginning of the 18th century Sardinia had an important political and economic change due to the transfer of power from Spain to Piedmont. A change also occurred in culture and artistic production, but it was much slower. The work of Are’s family belong to this context. Pietro Antonio (the father) and Gregorio (the son) realized their works from 1678 to 1777 [1]. They worked in some villages in the district of Nuoro, such as Fonni, Orani, Triei and Tonara. We believe that Are’s family members are the authors of the Santa Susanna vault frescoes. The church is located in the rural village of Busachi in the district of Oristano. Looking at the frescoes in the majority of the buildings in the villages mentioned above, we can find similarities in style, design setting, use of color and painting technique. Moreover, the floral motifs and the various characters depicted in the scenes have strong similarities. This pictorial and decorative practice is common in several churches on the island. This artistic phenomenon was not studied by many scholars yet. Consequently, it is not possible, like in our case, to easily attribute the authorship of certain works. The intention of this paper is to suggest a graphic study of Santa Susanna’s frescoes vault in order to add an important element to the knowledge of these architectural and artistic practice. This research aims to go beyond the stylistic classification. Through survey and drawing we will highlight the dimensional aspects in order to rebuild perspective. Thus, we will analyze the color choices and the different compositions with the purpose to make an objective comparisons with other similar works. At last but not at least we will highlight the state of preservation of these artistic compositions.
Drawing and color in the 18th century frescoes of the church of Santa Susanna in Sardinia
CASU, PAOLA
2013-01-01
Abstract
At the beginning of the 18th century Sardinia had an important political and economic change due to the transfer of power from Spain to Piedmont. A change also occurred in culture and artistic production, but it was much slower. The work of Are’s family belong to this context. Pietro Antonio (the father) and Gregorio (the son) realized their works from 1678 to 1777 [1]. They worked in some villages in the district of Nuoro, such as Fonni, Orani, Triei and Tonara. We believe that Are’s family members are the authors of the Santa Susanna vault frescoes. The church is located in the rural village of Busachi in the district of Oristano. Looking at the frescoes in the majority of the buildings in the villages mentioned above, we can find similarities in style, design setting, use of color and painting technique. Moreover, the floral motifs and the various characters depicted in the scenes have strong similarities. This pictorial and decorative practice is common in several churches on the island. This artistic phenomenon was not studied by many scholars yet. Consequently, it is not possible, like in our case, to easily attribute the authorship of certain works. The intention of this paper is to suggest a graphic study of Santa Susanna’s frescoes vault in order to add an important element to the knowledge of these architectural and artistic practice. This research aims to go beyond the stylistic classification. Through survey and drawing we will highlight the dimensional aspects in order to rebuild perspective. Thus, we will analyze the color choices and the different compositions with the purpose to make an objective comparisons with other similar works. At last but not at least we will highlight the state of preservation of these artistic compositions.
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